Syria Conflict Resolution

After years of working with Syrians — including government, opposition, and civil society stakeholders — The Carter Center has developed a reputation as a trusted, objective broker. Since the onset of the uprising, the Center's Conflict Resolution Program has been developing alternative paths to a political solution.

The humanitarian, political, and socioeconomic repercussions of the Syrian war have been catastrophic. The overall death toll, though difficult to determine, is estimated at more than 500,000. As a result of the ongoing violence, more than half of Syria's population has been displaced. Although talks have shown little progress so far, the war will eventually end.

The Carter Center's work in Syria is designed to bring stakeholders together to develop visions for a political resolution to the conflict, and to channel their ideas to top-level mediation processes. The Center does this in coordination with the Office of the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria and other international stakeholders. Additionally, the Center continues to monitor, document, and analyze levels of violence throughout the country. These parallel dialogue and analysis efforts are detailed below.

Syria Transition Dialogue

Since July 2013, The Carter Center has held workshops and consultations with Syrians and international representatives in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East and has become intimately acquainted with stakeholders’ concerns regarding a transition to peace. The Center has established a unique and diverse network of Syrians across political divides, including lawyers, judges, senior political officials, paramilitary representatives, academics, activists, civil society members, and business people, as well as international experts.

Workshops and consultations organized by the Center seek to address key, contentious issues, bridge communication gaps between different components of Syrian society, and develop new, innovative ideas for conflict resolution. Issues addressed in workshops have included constitutional and governance options, administrative decentralization, majority/minority concerns, the role of religion in Syria, gender issues, property rights, social reconstruction, and more. Following each workshop, the Center shares lessons learned and ideas generated with participants, with the U.N. mediation team and other international stakeholders, and often with the general public.

The main findings of the Center’s series of workshops on constitutional options and governance can be found below:

Syria Conflict Mapping

Since 2012, The Carter Center has endeavored to analyze open-source information (such as social media posts and YouTube videos) related to the Syrian conflict in as much detail as possible, with the goal of assisting mediators and conflict responders. Using these publicly available resources, as well as information gleaned from regular consultations with stakeholders, the Center has documented and mapped over 100,000 conflict events in Syria (including clashes, aerial bombardments, artillery shelling, etc.), the changing relations between thousands of armed groups, and front-line changes.

This information allows The Carter Center to provide mediators and conflict responders with up-to-date, detailed analysis of developments throughout Syria. Additionally, the Center maintains a near real-time, auto-updated map of areas of control throughout Syria, publishes weekly conflict updates with detailed maps, and releases periodic in-depth reports on noteworthy conflict developments. All of this information is analyzed and shared directly with mediators and humanitarian organizations through a software tool provided by Palantir Technologies.